In PWPonderings’ latest exclusive interview, Spike Nishimura (@wrestlespike) sits down to discuss her time at the New England Pro Wrestling Academy, Chaotic Wrestling, her training in Japan under Meiko Satomura, and so much more. Watch it in its entirety down below.

When and why did you first find professional wrestling when you were growing up?

“I wasn’t a childhood fan. I came to it kind of later on. The whole WWE-style and presentation didn’t click with me as a kid. You can tell that I’m not a diva myself; I wasn’t really into that whole era and vibe. Later on, through a series of coincidences, I came upon Lucha Underground online. I was just hooked on that because I didn’t realize there was a whole world of independent wrestling and alternatives outside of the mainstream WWE conception of wrestling. From then on I just got into the whole American indie scene, Ring of Honor, PWG, Chikara, huge influences on me. I watched a lot more Japanese wrestling. At the time, this must have been when I was like high school age, and then sort of into college, I just became a fan from there. During the Pandemic, when I was in school, I was doing a lot of Martial Arts on the club level. I like to stay fit and active and work out. I like everything about Martial Arts, anyone else who’s done it would probably know what I’m talking about. There’s nothing else quite like it. But the dojo, the school I was going to, closed during the Pandemic. So, one thing led to another, I did some research, and I found New England Pro Wrestling Academy, NEPWA, where I still train today. It wasn’t too far from where I lived. I decided that once I saved up the money to pay for classes, I’d try it out. Here I am today.”

What’s it like training at the prestigious New England Pro Wrestling Academy?

“I love training there. I’m a big fan of the trainers there; they know their stuff. They go above and beyond to give us a well-rounded wrestling education. They’ve been nothing but supportive in anything I want to do and have helped me achieve my goals to get there. If they can’t, for whatever reason, they know people who can. They’ve been great about bringing in outside trainers, outside voices, to kind of broaden our horizons. Having people like Dijak and Anthony Greene on the coaching staff is awesome. I wish I could get to more of their classes, but it’s kind of tough with my schedule. I try to, when I can, get their advice, wisdom, and input. Along with Chase (Del Monte) and Scott, it’s nice to have that kind of support and that community. So yeah, I’m doing what I can, but I wouldn’t be able to do it without my peers and trainers at the New England Pro Wrestling Academy.”

Why did you choose NEPWA?

“Well, I wanted to do my research. I’m very much like when I get involved in something, I go all in with it. If I were going to train and really put some effort into this, I wanted to get the best value I could for my time and money. At the time, it was the only big-name wrestling school in the southern New England area that I could find and get that much information on. At the time when I was just starting to train, Beyond hadn’t opened their school yet, so that wasn’t an option. I’m based in the greater Boston area, so it’s kind of an equal distance from both of them. But from what I could find, the one with the longest pedigree, and the most sort of, I think they have it on their website, but they had a whole list of different talents and people who’ve come through the school who had nothing but good things to say about it. Having that lineage and all these different people who are currently being very successful in the business, all came together and made me think that’s the place to be.”

What was it like touring and training in Japan?

“That was an awesome experience on so many levels. I was there with the Sendai girls, trained and run by Meiko Satomura for a month last October. I was coming over for their rookie Joshi tournament they do, which they call the Wild Horse Tournament, for up-and-coming Joshi wrestlers. So, I was scouted to be the first international entrant on that. That was a huge honor. I was flattered and honored to get that opportunity. Then, on top of that, the opportunity to train with the other Sendai girls wrestlers, and for them to be so supportive of me in my time there, was just an incredible experience learning from them and experiencing the culture. It’s completely different than anything in the United States, that I’ve seen with the way that wrestling is treated and handled, with a certain amount of legitimacy and respect. That was cool to be a part of when I was there. It gave me a lot of confidence. I was like ‘Okay, well, if I could go alone to another country for a month, where I don’t speak the language, and I can wrestle and train, and if I can get by there, I can get by anywhere.’ That gave me the sense of confidence of like, ‘well, what next?’ I think that’s probably the biggest thing is just that sense of assurance.”

How was training in Japan different than what you see in the United States?

“I thought NEPWA prepared me very well for it. They’re (NEPWA) known for being very intensive and pushed us to be our best athletically, on top of technique. I felt very well prepared for the kind of rigor of the training that we did there. So it wasn’t all that different from how we trained here. There was a lot more emphasis on calisthenics, a lot more group exercise. Here we have such limited ring time during the week because everyone has day jobs and things they do, but our training has to revolve more around technique and wrestling-specific stuff. Over in Japan, we trained every morning and had that time to exercise as a group. Whereas in the United States, you’re expected to do the conditioning and strength work outside of class. We devoted a lot more time to that intense Japanese training schedule. It wasn’t quite the 500 push-ups, 500 squats thing that I hear people talk about. It was a lot more learning to exercise with people, learning to trust people, and being able to work with other people in any kind of situation. Being able to work on the fly a lot. There was a lot of setting a timer and just wrestling with no plan, and just kind of like an objective for as long as the timer goes, for as hard as we can. We did a lot of that. I think more schools should do that. I think that’s a great drill and awesome for learning how to work in the ring. I think that was the biggest difference, just learning how much we did with not planning ahead of time. That was the biggest thing.”

What was it like working with Trigga The OG at Chaotic Wrestling, challenging for the New England Championship twice?

“He was so awesome to work with. He’s been so awesome since I first started, before I even started wrestling on shows, back when I was doing ring crew and security during shows. Even then, he was always really awesome to talk to in the locker room. I couldn’t ask for a nicer guy to talk to on shows. It’s easy to be caught up in your match, I don’t blame anyone for doing that, I do that even, and not talk to the students on the ring crew, but he was always really awesome about seeing how my day was going, and checking in with me. To be able to work with him and wrestle him like that was so cool. He also has a very different kind of style from a lot of other people. I don’t know if it’s a throwback or something all his own, but whatever it is, it’s just different. It means I get to learn from it. When you speak a similar but parallel wrestling language, it means you can do a lot more cool stuff or of a different flavor than what you can do with people you train with a lot. So, it was cool and it should have been intimidating to work with someone of that expertise, but honestly, he was so approachable and awesome to work with. It felt very natural to call everything and work with him, so that I never felt like I was too out of my depth. Especially being able to work with him twice. Being able to have our first match and follow that up and play on some of the stuff we did in the first match, the second time around, but do it better. You’re never going to have your best match with someone the first time you work with them. You need to learn each other’s timing and language. Being able to revisit it and go back and take it to the next level, which I don’t get to do enough, that felt good to be able to learn from what we did the first time and put it in play to show some magic. I’m really happy with the second match, that was one of my favorites. Easily in my Top 5 matches so far in my career. Awesome moment and so awesome to work with him.”

What was it like working with Kalvin Dumont? You started as partners and turned into rivals, kicking him to the curb, literally. How much fun was that?

“That was fun. We kicked each other to the curb in different ways, depending on whose side you listen to. We started around the same time. He and Milo Mirra, the three of us, started around the same time. In that case, it was just fun to work with someone I’ve been friends with since we started pretty much. You get to do those stories when you know someone that well, it means you kind of can beat the cr*p out of them. That’s just how it goes. You trust them, and you can use that friendship to get more dimensions out of a storyline like that. If it’s someone you don’t know as well, it’s harder to make that feel as natural and believable, and entertaining. Knowing someone like that helped. That was a very popular storyline. A lot of different people I talked to said that was a standout thing for them at Chaotic Wrestling last year. I’m flattered by that. I thought it was a lot of fun to do. It comes down to whether you know someone since they started, it comes more naturally to make it land. It’s fun.”

What has it been like teaming with Liviyah and seeing her evolve too in her own right?

“She’s great. I love Liv. I love working with Liv. I think she has the world ahead of her. I think even just in a year or two that I’ve known her, she’s come so far and is doing so well. I think she’s got a great future. I’ll work with her any chance that I can. She’s awesome.”

How important is it to you to continue growing in Chaotic Wrestling, the home promotion of NEPWA?

“It’ll always hold a special place in my heart. That’s the first promotion I had that level of work at, and that was my first home in wrestling. Being my home promotion, I’d say no matter where I go, it’ll always be there and always be something that matters to me. I’m not going to make any predictions on my future, but it’s been very cool to go from doing ring crew, security, and working these shows to wrestling and having that kind of fan reception. It’s been very cool.”

What’s next for you? Do you have any future goals or opponents you’d like to share the ring with?

“I’d love to wrestle Brooke Havok any time she’s back on the East Coast. Gabby Forza, I wrestled her once before, but any time she’s free and I can wrestle her, I’d love to do it again. I’d love to do it anytime. Pretty much any new opponents, honestly. What’s next for me? I’ve been making kind of my way into the New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia wrestling world. As much as I love wrestling in New England, it’s kind of fun to get out there and check out what else is available. My goals for the immediate future are just to keep wrestling there, keep exploring the country, keep getting more bookings out of my comfort zone, and travel more. I’d like to get to Canada at some point. Wrestle Kristara, I’ve been wanting to work with her for a long time. Just broaden my horizons, meet new audiences, and kick some different faces than the usual ones. That’s all I’m looking for right now. I’m looking forward to doing all of that, challenging for titles.”